Waterdeep
E54808746ba181cea7b2ec0a73dc7a4e.jpg|Organisations of Waterdeep|link=Organisations of Waterdeep 3a304bb17e588078909cd2a17aaec9a9.jpg|Powers of Waterdeep|link=Powers of Waterdeep c2001.png|Trollskull Alley|link=Trollskull Alley Overview Waterdeep is the major cosmopolitan power of the southern Landorian Commonwealth, and serves as the seat of power for The Principality of Karameikos and the major trade port of the alliance. It benefits from an excellent harbor, wise rule, a tolerant spirit, and a powerful magical tradition that generally produces stronger good wizards than evil wizards. Waterdeep contains at least one of nearly everything, but it's not a melting pot - instead, it's like a gem grinder, smoothing individuals' rough edges so that their talents shine brighter. The city's nickname, the City of Splendors, is never said sarcastically. People know that Waterdeep is a marvel and that life is better, or at least more bizarre, there. If Waterdhavians have one notable fault, it's a tendency to think that there is nothing new under the sun, and they treat the entire sum of human and nonhuman experience as their potential cultural heritage. This fault is not always a bad thing. The city is a major trade hub and vessels from all over, from the drakkar of the Blood Islands, to the junks of Tau Shen, to the dhow of Isria and Far Pharad, are seen it it's harbours. It is a cosmopolitan sprawling city that is ruled over by the loose hand of the Lord's Council, the High Chancel, and the critical eye of the arch magi Elminster. Having sided with the anti royalist House of Solmon in the recent civil war, Karameikos nonetheless remains relatively unspoiled, especially the city of Waterdeep itself. Trade and travel is already back to near pre war levels and the wealth once again flows north. Despite it's ancient heritage, the City of Splendors remains a place of vibrant opportunity and riches to those willing to prise them out of it's greedy grip. Society The City of Splendors is undeniably a place where things happen, an important center of trade and change. Waterdhavians merely accept this as a fact and never think on why or how it became. The astute see that Waterdeep is a city of wealth where the rich gather to trade, and in trading with others generate wealth with a swiftness unknown in back-country Landor. The coins are the fat under the cauldron. The cauldron itself, and the spoons that stir it, are the local powers locked in an endless struggle for supremacy, striving against each other in ways large and small. These are the guilds, nobles, trading costers, mercenary bands, city authorities, criminal organizations, individual citizens seeking daily sustenance, and newcomers seeking fortunes. Some folk find life in Waterdeep to be a wine they can't stop drinking. Powers of all sorts, from cults and trade cabals to wizards' organizations and foreign rulers, find it expedient to have spies and even assassins active in Waterdeep at all times. Although the City of Splendors has plenty of room for anyone with coin to spend, it also the place where every private moment may be seen or over heard by someone else. Many Waterdhavians rent secret rooms or establish false identities to avoid their enemies' ears. Government Oligarchy the Lords of Waterdeep Anonymous meritocratic rulers The current Open Lord representing the Lords is Piergeiron the Even, a Paladin of Orar in service to the High Chancel. Religion Shir The High Chancel Orar The Kinghts of Law Nulr The Elder Grove Kaen The Crashing Wave Evix The Inheritors Major Organisatians Lords of Waterdeep A council of sixteen members who their identities secret rules Waterdeep. The Lords appear in public only when masked and magically protected from divinations and other forms of magic. Piergeiron the Paladinson (a Paladin of of Orar), Warden of Waterdeep and Commander of the Watch, is the only Open Lord (unmasked), and his palace in the center of Castle Ward is the seat of government. Speculation on the identity of the other lords is a sporting pastime in Waterdeep. All that is certain is that they are competent and fair rulers, which is more than most cities could hope for, much less other cities whose rulers wear masks. The Royal House of Hannadrake The Red Bank The Harpers City Watch One of two armed bodies maintained by the city from Castle Waterdeep, the Watch functions as a police force. Watchfolk dress in green, black, and gold uniforms. They are well trained and well equipped with leather armor, clubs, and short swords. They would rather talk problems over than use force of arms, but if fighting is required, they use horns to summon reinforcements. City Guard Like the City Watch, the Guard is headquartered in Castle Waterdeep. Unlike the Watch, the Guard is made up of professional soldiers responsible for defending the city, protecting the gates, and guarding important citizens and locations. Guards wear scale or chain shirts and carry short swords and shortbows. The Griffin Guard The Iron Order The Navigator's Guild Guilds Once upon a time, the merchants' and craftsfolks' guilds ruled the city. Waterdeep barely survived the strife. These days, the guilds focus on the commercial and professional enterprises they handle best and (usually) leave the politicking to the Lords. The Grey College The Low Hand The Sworn The Beggar's Hall The Vistani The Pale House The Unborn Personalities of Waterdeep Elminster Aumar Halastar Blackcloak Lady Laeral Silverhand Lord Piergeiron the Even Banking in Waterdeep The Red Bank The Knights of Law The Wards Waterdeep commands the countryside for thirty or forty miles about, but the city itself is the chief feature. Waterdeep is divided into several major sections known as "wards," each of which contains Innumerable businesses, residences, or other buildings. Castle Ward Castle Ward, at the center of the city, includes fount Waterdeep, its castle, the Palace of Waterdeep (occupied by Lord Piergeiron), and the homes of some prosperous Waterdhavians. Dock Ward Compared to the rest of the city, Dock Ward is dirty, smelly, clumsily built, and dangerous. In the words of Elminster himself, Dock Ward is a "riotous, nigh-perpetual brawl that covers entire acres, interrupted only by small buildings, intermittent trade Businesses, an errant dog or two, and a few brave watchguards (who manage to keep the chaos from spreading beyond the docks), the whole lot wallowing in the stench of rotting fish." North Ward North Ward is primarily the home of the wealthy middle class, lesser nobles, and well-to-do merchants. Sea Ward The wealthiest ward of the city, Sea Ward is home to noble families. It features broad streets, wondrous statues, bright and expensive shops, and its own arena, the Field of Triumph. Southern Ward Also known as Caravan City, the Southern Ward serves as the staging, loading, and unloading zone for caravans passing through the southern gates into the city. "South," as it is known lo locals, is well patrolled by the City Watch and accustomed to providing newcomers to the city with lodging, information, food, and entertainment. Trades Ward Waterdeep's commercial section never truly closes, and work stops only during festivals. By night, candles, lanterns, oil lamps, and continual flames keep Trades Ward's streets and shops glowing, with staff who sleep by day to sell to those who shop by night. The city's major guilds have their headquarters in Trades Ward, near the businesses they work for or own. Important Sites The Beggar’s Hall Castle Waterdeep High on Mount Waterdeep, this great fortress bristles with mighty catapults that repel invaders who attack through the harbor. The most recent victims of the castle's bombardment were the sahuagin that attacked in.... Both the City Guard and the City Watch are headquartered in Castle Waterdeep. City of the Dead A huge cemetery, the City of the Dead is open to the public during the day and sealed off and patrolled at night, citizens and strangers who want their deeds to go unobserved operate in the shadows of the tombs. The graves themselves benefit from various levels of magical protection - some tombs are actually doorways into magical planes, pocket dimensions that cannot support life but serve as burial zones for unlimited numbers of honored nobles and fondly remembered commoners. Halls of the Sea The Crashing Wave The Illeath Cathedral The High Chancel Ironhold The Red Bank The Glades The Elder Grove New Olamn One of the Commonwealth's few bardic colleges, New Olamn occupies the site of former mountain top villas on Mount Waterdeep. With luck, this newly reopened incarnation of the college will rival the schools in Silverymoon. Trollskull Alley Trollskull Tavern The University of Glantry The Grey College The Yawning Portal Yerrin Island Skyships Undermountain Before the founding of Waterdeep, a wizard settled on the slopes of Mount Waterdeep with seven apprentices. None know the origins of Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Wizard, but he's said to have devised many spells now widely known. Halaster summoned and bound creatures from other planes to build his tower. Halaster's creatures - some of whom hunted humans by night - dug extensive storage tunnels beneath his abode. At length, their tunnels broke into the large, grand Underhalls, old dwarven delvings of the long-vanished Melairkyn clan. Halaster eradicated the drow infesting the halls and moved entirely into the subterranean ways, leaving behind his tower. His curious apprentices, abandoned on the surface, explored the underground lair but found only traps baited with powerful magic (and enigmatic messages hinting that "true power" awaited them below). One by one, as their courage and capabilities allowed, the seven descended in search of their master. They found a strange, dangerous labyrinth where Halaster stored his treasures, experiments, victuals and necessities, magic items, and servants - kept safe (he thought) from spying, theft, and attack. Time passed and Waterdeep grew around the mountain's base, expeditions of armed adventurers into Halaster's stronghold grew numerous. He roamed planes to collect monsters and moved his operations deeper into the endless Underdark. Undermountain became known as a place of horrors, the lair of terrible monsters. Halaster himself grew old, mighty, and insane. The warrior Durnan and others who explored Undermountain spoke of its riches, hazards, and vast passages. Many who were desperate for wealth, bored, or escaping pursuit went down the shafts in Durnan's inn, the Yawning Portal. Some returned, now rich for life, and greed kept the adventurous coming. Some in Waterdeep whisper that the Lords still sentence defiant criminals to Undermountain, to die or find their own ways free. Halaster, it is said, still roams the dozen levels and twice that many sublevels of Undermountain, watching from the walls. The Lords of Waterdeep turn a deaf ear to reports of entire temples below them and even an entire lawless trading community in the depths, Skullport. Sea caves are connected via great sling-hoists to the waters of Undermountain, allowing sea captains to smuggle cargoes to and from the drow and darker beings who dwell in wicked Skullport. The Lords forbid slavery in Waterdeep, but do not interfere when unsavory folk are smuggled out or down by this route. Elminster described Undermountain best: "The most famous battlefield in which to earn a reputation as a veteran adventurer - and the largest known grave of heroes in the Risenlands". Skullport Skullport, the Port of Shadows, is a human founded settlement deep beneath Waterdeep itself, linked to the surface only by a few closely monitored under roads. The dark twin to Waterdeep's light soul, Skullport is a subterranean city connected to both Undermountain, the city itself, and a great sea in the Underdark. Skullport is tolerated, barely, by the Lords of Waterdeep, because the madness and chaos it houses might otherwise rise to the surface and destroy the City of Splendors. Agents of Waterdeep monitor the city's buried twin and sometimes carry out missions here, but they generally refrain from acting unless Skullport's denizens plot against the city above. Located as it is on the fringe of the Underdark, Skullport has come to be dominated through the centuries by the subterranean races, though humans still maintain a presence even to this day, acting as merchants and, when possible, diplomats with the hostile races of the Underdark. Skullport sits on the coast of the great underground Saurgath Sea and, although deadly to unprepared surfacers who do not display the ability to defend themselves, provides an unique connection to the potential riches of the Underdark. But, nonetheless, Skullport is a cesspit of murderous evil by anyone's standards and, some say, the base of Waterdeep's assassin guilds, the Sworn, the members of which are said to have their own ways to come and go. As well as several notorious pirate captains and their crews, Skullport is also the operating base of the slavers of the Iron Ring... Humans that deal in the trade of human flesh to the citiy of Menzoberranzan and others. Sun elves and dwarves have a particularly hard time in the town... The sun elves due to their deep seated hatred of their cousins, the ..., and the dwarves due to their perpetual war in defense of the territories of their city, Gulath Dairn. Still, anything can be traded here and despite the danger, ships from the surface that know the locations and secrets of gigantic Black Doors that link the Saurgath to the surface oceans come and Skullport thrives. Oceangate Five miles south of Waterdeep's harbour, beneath the waves of the Southgrave Ocean on the border of the sub marine sea kingdom of Ablish'chria, lies the aquatic settlement of Oceangate. Here, with the agreement of the Waterdhavians, the seabound races come to trade the riches of the deep with what they desire from the surface. Relying on amphibious merchants from such races as tritons and genasi to act as brokers, the town has no established formal government, relying on a collection of powerful merchants to keep order and look to it's defense against the threats of the deep. For those that can reach Oceangate, and speak the languages of the sea peoples, the riches are said to be there for the taking. Several surface organisations maintain a presence in the town, including the Lord's Council, the Low Hand, and the cult of the Crashing Wave. Despite this, it is not an unknown sight to see heavily escorted triton and other merchants and diplomats from the oceans walking the streets of Waterdeep on some business or other, though clearly most find the loud dirty city to be an immensely unpleasant experience. Skyships & Spelljamming Yerrin Island Though rarer by a long shot than their ocean bound cousins, skyships are not so rare as to cause panic or interest in most Waterdhavians, though few are there that have actually boarded or traveled on such a craft. Skyships themselves are forbidden from landing directly within Waterdeep's walls or approaching it without the express permission of the Griffin Guard, though official city vessels have permits to enter the city at will.Skyships range from the smallest 4 man skiffs, to the huge merchant fluyts that form an essential trade link with distant Isria, Kalahura, and Tau Shen, among others. The Waterdhavian Griffin Guard is also known to maintain a small fleet of combat ready corvettes as a defense versus attack from the sky. Category:Eth Category:Cities of Eth Category:W Category:Waterdeep Category:Plane of Eth Category:City of Splendors Category:Principlaity of Karemeikos Category:The Landorian Commonwealth Category:Powers of Waterdeep Category:Trollskull Alley Category:Trollskull Tavern